Geology Professor Patricia Kelley to Lecture on Evolution and Creation: Conflicting or Compatible? at Washington and Lee

Patricia Kelley, professor of geology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University on March 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library.

Kelley will speak on “Evolution and Creation: Conflicting or Compatible?” The talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by W&L’s departments of Geology, Biology and Religion.

As a distinguished lecturer of the Paleontological Society, Kelley seeks to bridge the divide between acknowledgement—even celebration—of the reality of evolution and beliefs maintained by the great religious traditions.

Her expertise is in invertebrate paleontology and her research focuses on evolution and paleoecology of Coastal Plain mollusks. Ongoing studies include tempo and mode of evolution; role of biological factors such as predation in evolution; predator-prey coevolution and escalation; and mass extinction and recovery of mollusk faunas.

Kelley has edited six books and 38 articles including “Assessing the Influence of Escalation during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution: Shell Breakage and Adaptation against Enemies in Mesozoic Ammonites,” in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2015); “Shell Ornamentation as an Exaptation: Evidence from Predatory Drilling on Cenozoic Bivalves,” in Paleobiology (2015); and “Validation of Taxon-specific Sampling by Novice Collectors for Studying Drilling Predation in Fossil Bivalves,” in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2014).

She is a Centennial fellow of the Paleontological Society and received North Carolina’s 2014 Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also received the United States Outstanding Master’s Universities and Colleges Professor of the Year Award in 2014.

Washington and Lee University provides a liberal arts education that develops students' capacity to think freely, critically, and humanely and to conduct themselves with honor, integrity, and civility. Graduates will be prepared for life-long learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society.